1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a three-dimensional (3D) display apparatus, and more particularly, to a 3D display apparatus with active polarization. Description of Related Art
Nowadays, three-dimensional (3D) display has become more and more prevalent. 3D imaging and display techniques are categorized into glasses 3D techniques and glassless 3D techniques. The glasses 3D techniques can be further categorized into shutter 3D techniques and polarized 3D techniques. The shutter 3D techniques and the polarized 3D techniques respectively have their own advantages and disadvantages. However, none of the existing glasses 3D techniques can offer the advantages of both the shutter and polarized 3D techniques. For instance, shutter glasses offer high resolution but are expensive, flicker-prone, easily interfered by infrared rays, and offer low 3D display brightness, while polarized glasses are less expensive, free of flickers and infrared interference, and offer high 3D display brightness but offer only half the resolution of that offered by the shutter glasses.
In a conventional 3D display technique, each of the 3D image data is theoretically considered an independent left-eye's view or an independent right-eye's view. When the image data are played, images at different viewing angles are accepted by the left and right eyes of a viewer and combined into 3D images with depth information in the viewer's brain. Thus, a stereo vision is produced. Since none of the existing techniques optimizes the image data, even though these techniques are very simple, the flickering issue of the shutter glasses cannot be resolved, and the low resolution resulting from the polarized glasses cannot be improved.
Generally, every existing design is based on either the left-eye's view only or the right-eye's view only. Namely, data representing a left-eye's view are shown to the left eye of a viewer at one moment, and data representing a right-eye's view are shown to the right eye of the viewer at another moment. The frequency of images which are received by a single eye is approximately 50 Hz or 60 Hz. Flickers may be sensed by a viewer if the image update frequency is not high enough. Thus, one may feel dizzy or fatigued after viewing 3D images.
How to resolve the flickering issue and improve 3D display quality to reduce discomfort of a viewer has become a major research topic in the industry.